Radium, the most mysterious element of science, is now accomplishing amazing feats in medicine and engineering. New uses for this marvelous substance are described here.

by ALFRED ALBELLI

FAR off in the isolated hamlet of Cabri, situated in a remote part of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, a woman suffering from cancer listened to her physician solemnly pronounce her death-knell.

“Madame,” he said, in the somber note of a doctor who must admit that he cannot cope with the unfathomable ravages of Nature, “I am helpless. Our battle is done. There’s only one possible means of saving your life. It is radium.”

ANYONE can build and operate this simplified Geiger-Mueller survey meter, which is an instrument for detecting the presence of radiations emanating from radioactive substances such as valuable uranium and radium. Specifically, the Geiger-Mueller tube, which is the most important component of the instrument, detects X-rays, cosmic rays and gamma rays. Beta rays can also be detected by Geiger tubes with very thin cathode walls.

Atomic Lab Set. shown at the American Toy Fair in New York, has cloud chamber that makes visible the paths taken by speeding alpha particles, a Geiger counter, and a screen that shows the break-up of radio-active material. A. C. Gilbert Co., of New Haven, Conn.

Condensed from Newsweek One fine morning in the spring of 1960 a gleaming white ship will glide from some American harbor out to sea. The ship’s rakish lines will be unmarred by any smokestacks. Her bridge will probably resemble the pilot’s bubble on some huge aircraft. Her passengers—nuclear scientists and marine engineers —will anxiously watch each dial aboard the ship to see if all is well.

America’s first atomic merchant ship will thus embark upon her first sea trials.

How “safe” is it to test an atom bomb ? Will wind-blown radioactive dust or charged rain clouds endanger life or crops in inhabited regions?

The National Bureau of Standards recently developed a “portable” analog computer to assist in predicting radioactive fall-out from a nuclear explosion. The fall-out pattern appears instantly on oscilloscope (left of photo) after weather data and the size and type of bomb are “told to” the computer by setting dials. As computers go, “portable” means that it will fit into a truck.

Wind-carried fall-out even from “small” atomic tests has traveled as far as Paris and Tokyo when caught in the “jet stream” of the upper atmosphere.

IT may not be world-shattering news, but golfers will welcome one of the newest atomic developments once it emerges from the experimental stage. It’s a golf ball that can’t get lost. Minute quantities of radioactive materials are embedded under the cover of the ball so that if you carry a portable Geiger counter, you can locate it even in dense woods. When you’re getting close to the correct location, you’ll know by the signals on your headphones.

Below, Dr. William L. Davidson the inventor lets Lawson Little, famous golf pro, left, hear the tell-tale clicks. At the right, he gives the fairer sex a chance to marvel at modern science.

A TECHNICIAN puts Oil this plastic protective suit by crawling into it through its fat “tail, ” which is connected to a port in the door. Used in radioactive areas at the Hanford plutonium factory, it stays inflated because air pressure inside the “hot” room is lower than pressure outside. This prevents any radioactive dust from leaking outside the room.

The world would be healthier, wealthier and wiser, say AEC scientists, discussing President’s daring proposal to United Nations.

editor’s note: President Eisenhower’s dramatic proposal to the United A at ions that a world pool of fissionable materials he created for peaceful purposes had no greater appeal to any hearts and minds than those of nuclear scientists. Popular Science Monthly invited some of them, on the staff of the Atomic Energy-Commission’s labs at Brookhaven, N. Y., to tell yon what they think of the plan’s potentialities. Their discussion, recorded on magnetic tape, is transcribed here. The various speakers are: William A. Higinbotham, Harry Palevsky, Drs. Clarke Williams, Marvin Fox and Charles P. Baker, physicists; Mrs. Beth Baker, a chemist; and Wesley S. Griswold, of PSM’s editorial staff.